Redundant Network Design

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Problem statement

You are given an undirected, weighted graph representing a network of servers, with 'V' servers and a list of potential connections. Each connection [u, v, w] represents a cable that can be laid between server u and server v with a cost of w.

Your primary goal is to build the cheapest possible network that connects all servers. This is known as the Minimum Spanning Tree (MST).

However, for reliability, you also need to find the second-best MST. The second-best MST is a spanning tree whose total cost is the next-smallest possible value that is strictly greater than the cost of the first MST. It is known that any second-best MST can be formed from an MST by swapping one of its edges with one of the graph's edges not in the MST.

Your task is to calculate and return the total cost of the second-best MST.


Detailed explanation ( Input/output format, Notes, Images )
Input Format:
The first line of input contains two space-separated integers, 'V' and 'E', the number of vertices and edges.
The next 'E' lines each contain three space-separated integers, u, v, and w, representing an undirected edge between u and v with weight w.


Output Format:
Print a single integer representing the cost of the second-best MST.
If no second-best MST exists (e.g., the graph is already a tree), print -1.
Note:
The algorithm to solve this is:
1)Find the first MST and its total cost using an algorithm like Kruskal's. Keep a list of the edges that are part of this MST.
2)Iterate through every edge (u, v) with weight w_new that was not included in the first MST.
3)For each such edge, temporarily adding it to the MST creates a unique cycle. To form a new spanning tree, we must remove another edge from this cycle.
4)To find the smallest increase in cost, we must remove the heaviest edge on the path between u and v within the first MST.
5)Calculate the new tree's cost: MST_cost + w_new - w_heaviest.
6)The second-best MST cost is the minimum of these calculated costs that is strictly greater than the original MST cost.
Sample Input 1:
7 12
0 1 18
0 6 2
0 5 8
0 4 10
1 6 12
1 2 4
2 6 14
2 3 26
3 4 16
3 6 30
4 5 5
4 6 3


Sample Output 1:
44


Explanation for Sample 1:
1.  First, we find the MST. Its edges are `(0,6,2), (4,6,3), (1,2,4), (4,5,5), (1,6,12), (3,4,16)`. The total cost of this MST is 42.
2.  Now we consider an edge not in the MST, for example, `(2,6)` with weight 14. Adding it creates a cycle `2-1-6-2`. The path in the MST between 2 and 6 is `2-1-6`. The edges on this path are `(2,1,4)` and `(1,6,12)`.
3.  The heaviest edge on this path is `(1,6)` with weight 12.
4.  We swap: remove the edge of weight 12 and add the edge of weight 14.
5.  The new cost is `42 - 12 + 14 = 44`.
6.  After checking all other non-MST edges, this is found to be the smallest possible increase, so the second-best MST cost is 44.


Sample Input 2:
4 3
0 1 10
1 2 20
2 3 30


Sample Output 2:
-1


Explanation for Sample 2:
The graph is a line with 4 vertices and 3 edges. It is already a tree. There are no extra edges to swap in, so a second-best MST cannot be formed.


Expected Time Complexity:
The expected time complexity is O(E log V + E*V) for a simple implementation or O(E log V) with an advanced LCA-based approach. The simpler implementation is sufficient for the given constraints.


Constraints:
1 <= V <= 100
V-1 <= E <= V*(V-1)/2
0 <= u, v < V
1 <= w <= 1000
The graph is guaranteed to be connected.

Time limit: 1 sec
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Redundant Network Design
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Redundant Network Design
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